Would you pay to upload videos to YouTube?

As Jeffrey Lindsay, with Sanford Bernstein put it, charging users 5 cents per upload would “stop people from listing rubbish and cover at least some of the hosting cost.” It’s just one more idea to reverse an estimated $200 million + in annual losses at YouTube, the video sharing service owned by Google.

Yes, YouTube is popular. Yes, it’s the dominant video site. But the $400 to $700 million it costs to operate YouTube annually dwarfs the $200 million to $250 million in advertising revenue it generates, Lindsay said.

Google doesn’t break out the financial results for YouTube from its overall business so it’s difficult to say how much money it loses. As for any plans to charge to upload videos, Google responded in a statement:

“Giving users the ability to easily upload, share, and discover videos has always been at the core of YouTube’s DNA and that won’t change. Obviously, different types of content require different types of business models, but at the end of the day, users will always be able to choose how to experience the site.”

YouTube has been trying to wring more advertising revenue on the site for the past year, by introducing new ad formats. We’ve written about some of the efforts here.

But the flood of new videos to the site – users upload 20 hours of video per minute – and the millions of users – they’ll watch 75 billion video streams in 2009, according to comScore – make it costly to operate in terms of bandwidth and servers. Shareholders are footing the bill for the losses, Lindsay said.

Lindsay said that YouTube’s problem, in part, is the low quality of most of its videos, like the iconic skateboarding cats and dancing babies. Advertisers prefer professional content, as is featured on YouTube’s rival Hulu.

Lindsay’s idea is for YouTube to be more like eBay, and charge a nominal fee. Listing fees for videos that turn out to be popular could be reimbursed.

Videos that failed to get enough views, or that were inappropriate for advertising, would be deleted after three months or so, unless the person who posted it paid again.

“Yes, usage would plummet, but this would stop the irrational uses of the service and it would quickly make clear what people valued,” Lindsay said.

YouTube management may reel at the idea of declining traffic and a more limited selection of clips. Advertising on the site is based on its high user traffic, such as the big display ads on the home page. Free users also generate revenue by clicking on search ads.

Lindsay suggested that YouTube seed all its users’ accounts with $10 and draw from its electronically. If Google wanted, it could allow educational and public service videos to be uploaded and watched for free.